Taiwan News Quick Take

Staff writer, with CNA

HEALTH

CDC warns on China travel

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged travelers to China to stay “alert” following the discovery of two new human cases of the H7N9 virus. The two cases, one in Zhejiang Province and the other in Guangdong Province, were confirmed by Chinese health authorities on Tuesday. They were the third and fourth to be reported since the virus re-emerged last month, the CDC said. Since the novel strain of bird flu was first discovered in China in March this year, 138 human infections have been reported in 10 provinces and two cities, with 45 dying from the virus, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊仁祥) said. The CDC is maintaining its travel health advisory at “Level 2 Alert” for Zhejiang and Guangdong, and at the lower “Level 1 Watch” for the rest of China, he said.

CHINA AFFAIRS

MAC to promote exchanges

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) will push for exchanges of visits between the heads of the council and its Chinese counterpart, the Taiwan Affairs Office, and establish a regular communication mechanism, MAC Chairman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said in a report to a legislative committee yesterday. The council will also push for follow-up talks on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed in 2010, and for better conditions for Chinese students studying in Taiwan, he said. Asked about Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen De-ming’s (陳德銘) visit to Taiwan later this month, Wang said he currently has no plans to meet him, but if they do, he hoped that “both sides can move forward on the basis established” at the APEC forum. During the APEC meet last month, Wang and TAO Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) addressed each other by their official titles.